Mapping Attitudes Towards the Police at Micro Places

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

We demonstrate the utility of mapping community satisfaction with the police at micro places using data from citizen surveys conducted in 2001, 2009 and 2014 in one city. In each survey, respondents provided the nearest intersection to their address. We use inverse distance weighting to map a smooth surface of satisfaction with police over the entire city, which shows broader neighborhood patterns of satisfaction as well as small area hot spots of dissatisfaction. Our results show that hot spots of dissatisfaction with police do not conform to census tract boundaries, but rather align closely with hot spots of crime and police activity. Models predicting satisfaction with police show that local counts of violent crime are the strongest predictors of attitudes towards police, even above individual level predictors of race and age.

Authors

• Andrew Wheeler, University of Texas at Dallas

• Jasmine R. Silver, University at Albany, SUNY

• Sarah J McLean, The John F. Finn Institute

• Robert E Worden, University at Albany, SUNY